"What the..." The man sputtered as he regained consciousness only to find himself facing his former captain.
"Hello, Chakoay." She smiled at him, the small smile never quite reaching her eyes.
"Kathryn?" He sat up slowly, looking confused. "What are you doing here? And where is 'here'?" He added as he looked around the room.
"Starfleet headquarters." Was the laconic reply, as she looked him up and down. "Who are you going to kidnap, Chakotay? And how come they're worth nearly half their weight in Latinum?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"We heard you Chakotay. Tom, B'Elanna, Tuvok, and I all heard the deal that you struck, we know what's going on. All that's missing is the why, Chakotay."
A few rooms away, two admirals quietly sat and watched the live feed from the room where the famous captain and her former first officer were sitting. They duo kept quiet during the nearly full hour that the woman kept on trying to poke at the man sitting before her, to get him to admit at least a part of the plan or motive, noticing just as she had, the small half truths that amounted to a lie.
But it was only when she threw that fact in his face, counting off his contradicting statements that the man finally snapped at her. "If it wasn't for her sudden and inexplicable desire to break up with me, you wouldn't have known any of this!" Kathryn struggled to keep the shock away from her features.
"If it wasn't..." she shook her head, positive the she was misheard him. "What?" She could almost feel her face drain of color as she contemplated the meaning of her former first officer's words.
"It would have been a vacation." His almost dreaming tone had obvious underlines of a sneer. "I would have gotten her to go and after some complication we would have been forced to call for help. You would have arrived and..." He clasped his fingers together like an old trap snapping shut. "But then, she leaves me, for you of all people." A trap?.. Me of all people? "I really thought you could do better at trying to get her to rethink things, but I appear to have underestimated you again. I always knew you cared. Heck, if you didn't than this whole thing couldn't have taken place. But I never thought you loved her as more than a substitute mother-figure, a mentor" It was only the years of diplomacy that ingrained certain responses in her that allowed her to keep her face neutral, and not let her mouth slowly drop to form a perfect O.
"And what would you have gotten from all of this Chakotay? What trade-off is worth it?" He merely laughed.
"Latinum, of course. Three quarters your weight in pure latinum. " He explained, smirking.
"And to whom were you attempting to sell me to, Mr. Chakotay?" She forced herself not to cringe as he merely laughed again.
"How much is it worth to your precious Starfleet to know this, Captain?" He sneered.
"I am not your captain, Chakotay."
"Oh, but you are... And if you want to know who, out of the... how many planets accept latinum as currency now? My contacts might decide that they just want you badly enough to come and pick up their merchandise from dear old Earth, I suggest that you contact your beloved Starfleet Admirals and get me a good deal, Kathryn." With that, he leaned back in his chair. Oh, I'll get you a deal...
"Do you really think that your contacts will come to San Francisco for me? Or that the admirals will offer you a deal? You tried to kidnap and sell one of the prominent members of Voyager. And you failed. Whichever way you look at this - this endeavor will not bode well for you..." He cut her off.
"You really are that stupid, aren't you? I was taking her away from Starfleet so that you can't use her or her knowledge for your benefit, the bonus of getting paid for getting you to some... zookeepers, or whatever they wanted to do with you was just a nice little way to end it all."
"What?"
"Are you deaf as well as dumb?" Placing his forearms on the table before him, he leaned closer to her, his eyes regarding her intensely. "My plan was to remove Seven of Nine from Starfleet and get rid of you in the process."
"Why? You have fought for Starfleet for seven years before we came back. You and I were friends." She tried her best not to growl the words. "What happened? What changed?"
His face reddened and he gritted his teeth. Kathryn leaned against the wall, facing the seated man, keeping herself fully within the line of his vision. She had time. She had all the time they would need even if this took days.
It took several long minutes before the man all but spat out the words.
"I fought to get back to the alpha quadrant only to discover that I had not home to return to, because my planet, and its inhabitants were nearly all killed in a Cardassian attack that the Federation never even tried to stop!" She attempted to hide her confusion as she was told of an event that she had never even heard of.
"So you planed on kidnapping the woman you love, and selling me to get back at the Federation?" He raised his eyebrows at her, a disbelieving look flashing through his features.
"It was never kidnapping. I was taking her with me. A holiday, a trip to see this part of the galaxy. You were going to be the fat," excuse me? "added bonus. Do you really think that once I discovered the truth about all the dead that I could think of anything except avenging their deaths? What I was going to give them at the end of these six long months was going to help bring this wretched Federation down." She looked at the man sitting before her for a long moment, her face set into an unreadable mask as she counted slowly in order to get her temper out of control.
"What were you going to do to her once you've sold me?" He shrugged.
"Nothing. She wasn't supposed to know anything except that we had trouble and we fixed them. We would have come back and lived our lives. Once I get the latinum, collect the survivors from my planet, and move them somewhere safe where we can all start our lives anew."
"I've heard enough." The sitting man couldn't hide his flinch at Captain Janeway's near-growl as she stood from her chair and headed for the door. "The locks are encrypted and there are armed guards at the door, so don't even try it."
Once out the door and around the corner, the famous Captain stopped and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths as she tried to wrap her head around this turn of events. After all this time, he wanted me to... She shook her head to dispel the thoughts. And to use Seven like that... Another deep breath, and she could hear steps approaching. There were people coming. She was in the middle of Starfleet Headquarters. People moved here.
Suddenly she wanted to get away. To leave, and there was only one place she wanted to go. But there will be things that will need to be done before she could leave, and she would be damned if they'd take more than an hour.
"Captain." Admiral Paris greeted her, his face cold. Admiral Tesler echoed the greeting.
"Admirals. Tuvok." She greeted them in return. "I'm guessing you've heard what he said."
"Yes." The younger admiral replied, looking at Paris and her friends favored security officer and friend before returning her eyes to Janeway. "Lets take it out of the hallway, though."
"Tes... Admiral, please..." She couldn't get more than these few words out before she was cut off by Admiral Paris.
"I understand, Captain, but you agree that this isn't something that we can talk about in a hallway, right?" Her shoulders slumped as she took in the man's words, well aware of the truth in them. "There's a room down the hall, come."
"Since we have all seen and heard what Chakotay had to say, and how he feel in this matter, than I believe the most logical course of action will be to try and find more information without him. Unless you are willing to consider a deal for him?" Never.
"No. If we can charge him without a deal, and get the people that he was in contact with then I think we would all rather we do that, right?" The silver haired admiral didn't even need to look at the people around him to know their answers. " Lieutenant Commander, form a team, you have 48 hours to bring back anything you can find. I would rather you use people who are deployed in the area, but if you feel that you have better people here, then I won't object. However, you need to run their names through Admiral Tesler. But remember – this is as top secret as it gets." Tuvok nodded once.
"Than I shall leave to prepare."
"Sir," Janeway interjected. "I'll go. I can do this."
"You are the one that they want Kathryn. We're not going to just dangle you in front of them." He replied shaking his head. " Lieutenant Commander, you're dismissed." The trio continued looking at the Vulcan's retreating back. "Shame you didn't make that one your first officer and executed the other one."
"Tes!" The auburn haired woman nearly laughed. "I had to, in the beginning, and than, no matter how many shuttles he crashed, he always came through." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Is what he said about his home planet true?"
"Sadly, yes." Admiral Paris answered her solemnly. "Our intel was off, and we were too late to stop them, there were some survivors, but there is still little we can do against radiation pulses and plasma bombs. Even the closest ship was too far away from the moment when the planets sensors first picked the fact that the upcoming ship means them harm." She sighed again and turned to look at the woman beside her.
"So now what? Until Tuvok returns with new information, that is."
"You go home and rest. Since you were the target, we're pulling you off the rest of the case. But, Chakotay knows that we're going to do this, so I think that letting you carry on with his interrogation might throw him off his game. However, it's up to you since we," the blonde admiral glanced at her elder peer, "know how hard this can be for you. And it might get even harder."
"No," Captain Janeway shook her head. "I can deal with this. With him. I'll just need..." She took a breath, her head still spinning slightly. "I'll just need breaks every now and again. Long breaks," she pinched the bridge of her nose, "and coffee."
Both admirals smiled. "We can do that. We thought about sitting you down with him on and off to try and get him to accidentally give us the information. But right now, letting him sit there sounds positively lovely. Let him enjoy his supposed victory a bit before we start raining on his parade." She smiled slightly for a short moment. "Go home. And if I don't see you tomorrow, which probably won't happen, but still – he is not to know that Tuvok, or anyone else for that matter, is gathering information against him." Janeway frowned at her.
"Of course."
"Good. Try and sleep, Kath." She nodded at the two admirals and taking this as her dismissal, left to try and wrap her head around the past few hours' events.
Less then 30 minutes later she found herself on the steps to a familiar building that she has yet to be able to bring herself to enter.
"The table is set, Aunt Irene." Walking into the living room to draw her aunt's attention seemed far more efficient than attempting to shout out the information. The older woman raised her hand in a gesture that the blonde had learned to interpret as asking for a moment to finish the paragraph. Nodding at her once, she turned to return to the kitchen to bring the food to the table when a knock at the door stopped her.
"Now, who could it be at this hour? Could you get it, Seven dear?"
"Of course." Was the almost mumbled, distracted answer as the blonde once again wondered why there was still no word from Kathryn, who had promised that they will dine together on this night. She cleared her head shortly before reaching for the door, only to look at the person standing on the front steps in shock. "Kathryn!"
"Hi, Seven" The smaller woman said before lowering her gaze, her shoulders dropping along with it. "I'm sorry I didn't contact you..." She offered in a small voice before raising her eyes to meet the blue ones before her again. "I just..." Her voice trailed off for a moment, "I needed to see you." Seven smiled at her and reached for her hand.
"I am pleased that you have come. Come in, my aunt and I were just about to sit down for dinner. You, of course, are welcome to join us." Upon hearing this, Kathryn froze mid step.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Seven! I didn't mean to intrude on your time..."
"Kathryn," Seven raised her free hand to stop the other woman, "you are not intruding. I am pleased that you are here, and so will my aunt."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Suddenly, the weight of the uniform felt even heavier on the captains' shoulders. A feeling that did not lessen through the brief reintroductions, nor as they sat at the table. I should have figured that it was not going to be just us, not when it's dark outside and I'm at her aunt's house...
It was nearly half and hour later when Irene decided to take pity on the obviously still uncomfortable woman. "Seven, I want to have a private word with Kathryn, would you mind giving us a few moments alone?" Seven raised an eyebrow in response, but after a glance at the woman sitting beside her, who only barely managed to cover her nervousness at the bold statement, and again at her aunt, she nodded her assent and left. "I realize that you are nervous, and I believe I know why, but listen, Kathryn – In the past few days, ever since she had discovered that she can openly love you, Seven has been walking on air. I have never seen her as happy as when she looks at you, and in my book – that is the only thing that counts. But," she leaned a bit forward in her seat, "do you feel the same?"
"I do." Kathryn managed a small smile at the woman across the table. "That's partly why I kept my distance before – I thought she was happy, but seeing them together was... hard." The older woman smiled at her.
"I can understand that. But please, relax."
"I can't. Not yet. Not when I'm half expecting to be summoned back if they find any breaks on the operation that I'm involved in now." She shook her head at Irene's questioning look. "I can't talk about it. Not while it's ongoing."
"Very well." The older woman smiled again. "I can see why she likes you. Lets have desert in the living room. Go in, second door on the left, we'll be there shortly." Kathryn nodded and stood up, wondering at this turn of events as she sat herself on the two person couch a few moments later.
"Kathryn?" The soft voice made her look up, and she smiled softly.
"Sit with me? I need to feel you close..." The taller woman sat beside her, taking the smaller hands in her own.
"What is wrong, Kathryn?" A rueful smile spread for a moment on the Captain's lips and she shook her head.
"I'm under orders not to speak of this yet, so please, don't make this harder than it already is for me. Just... be here?" Seven nodded, a small smile spreading on her lips as she released one of Kathryn's hands to push a lock of hair behind her ear. The auburn haired woman leaned into the gesture, only to raise her eyes to meet the blue ones of Irene looking at them fondly and holding a small tray.
She placed her head on Seven's shoulder as the desert was placed on the table, and Irene took her seat on the nearby overstuffed chair. They all sat together in a comfortable silence that was punctured only by the voice of the anchorman from the station picked by Irene to tell them of the day's events. It was hard for Kathryn to suppress the sigh of relief at the fact that no one has yet picked up on Chakotay's arrest, but now, her head nestled against Seven's shoulder and her arm around the taller woman's waist while the blonde half hugged her, she felt better. Knowing the woman was here, and safe, was pleasing, and after the long hours of flight, surveillance, and then the even more draining interrogation – the innocent, yet intimate touch was comforting.
Knowing that Irene approved was even better, as she knew that she was too old for hiding. Especially now that they had finally managed to find each other, she wanted to write it in the sky.
But first, Chakotay. She unconsciously tightened her hold on the other woman. Things needed to be worked out in regards to him. Her thoughts raced on, concentrating on their relationship and things that they could do as she only half listened to the commentator talking about the preparations for the upcoming festival in Bagor.
Looking down at the woman in her arms Seven couldn't help but smile softly. This week has been full of surprises, and this – Kathryn showing up at her home for the first time. Only that this was the first time that the house really felt like home. She shifted her head a bit, enjoying the feeling of the fine strands of auburn hair against her cheek as she continued to watch the broadcast, wondering at the almost silent mood that the other woman has been in all night. If it wasn't for the mission that she knew that her Captain was still involved with she would have been concerned, but knowing what she did, she could keep her curiosity down.
"Seven, honey?" Her aunt shook her from her reverie in a quiet voice, and she turned her head to look at her. "I think you should find her a bed." The older woman gestured at Kathryn with her chin. Looking down, the blonde noticed the even breathes that she had attributed to a sense of clam similar to her own, were actually evidence that her beloved has fallen asleep.
She nodded at her aunt and bid her a good night before shifting so that she could slide her free hand under the smaller woman's knees and lift her up. Rising the stairs in slow measured steps she took the time up look at the woman in her arms, the auburn head on her shoulders, the relaxed expression, the rhythm of the woman's breathing under the heavy uniform jacket. Only then did it dawn on her that the woman was still in full uniform.